Learning Chinese with a partner is very good, because it makes you more motivated and makes it more fun to learn. However, it isn’t a magic bullet that will solve all your problems. You will still need to study, you will still need to practice, it’s just that some of the things you need to learn will be more enjoyable and you will hopefully be more motivated to learn. That’s worth a lot, but you can find other fun ways to learn and other things to drive you forwards.

Some people seem to believe that living in a country is enough to learn the language spoken there. This is wrong, and it’s especially wrong if the language is Chinese. Becoming fluent in Chinese is the result of blood, sweat and tears, nothing less. Living abroad certainly helps, but it’s an opportunity most often wasted by students.